SHALIKASHVILI - PETVIASHVILI SHOWCASE PROJECT

We have received interesting news from WMO members in Georgia that have worked on a very interesting and unusual multidisciplinary art & mime project and they are hopping to tour the world with it.

The Georgian State Pantomime Theatre (www.pantomime.ge), has performed the “Shalikashvili-Petviashvili Showcase” a project commissioned by the City of Tbilisi, on May 26th 2017 during the Georgian Independence Day celebration on Rustaveli avenue Tbilisi’s main street.

It was a free performance with huge audience, raising great interest among the people of Tbilisi as it caries the names of two great Georgian artist, AmiranShalikashvili the founder of Georgian mime and Georgian State Pantomime Theatre and RusudanPetviashvili world renowned Georgian painter and graphic artist.

RusudanPetviashvili is one of the most distinguished figures in Georgian contemporary painting, she is listed in “2000 Famous Persons of XX Century”, the book published by the Cambridge Biographical Centre” and she exhibited her art all around the world.

The art of mime is a legacy of the Shalikashvili family, the father AmiranShalikashvili and mother Kira Mebuke and all four of their children are in the art and business of mime. They have founded the Georgian State Pantomime Theatre more than 50 years ago and the Department for Mime at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University in Tbilisi. AmiranShalikashvili was presented with the “Special WMO Award for the outstanding contribution to the art of mime” in 2015.

RusudanPetviashvili has illustrated the “The Knight in the Panther's Skin” book in 1985 receiving many awards for her work and having an exhibition of the illustrations in France in 1991 after which it toured the world, and this year AmiranShalikashvili staged a mime spectacle of the “Knight in the Panther’s Skin” after 30 years of preparation and contemplation over this immortal saga of love and friendship.

The “Shalikashvili-Petviashvili Showcase” project revived the unique paintings and illustrations of “The Knight in the Panther's Skin” by RusudanPetviashvili embodied in mime artists painted bodies through their movement choreographed by Salome Pilishvili, body-art done AnukaMurvanidze and dressed in costumes designed by LashaDevdariani.

This was not a just a street performance but a festival for all the senses bringing together the work of Georgian artist from medieval times through twentieth century and today.

The Georgian State Pantomime Theatre hopes to tour the international festivals with this mime performance.

“Shalikashvili-Petviashvili Showcase” Project

Illustartions by RusudanPetviashvili

Idea and sound arrangement by: AmiranShalikasvhili Jr.

Make up by: AnukaMurvanidze

Choreography by: Salome Pilishvili

Costumes Designer: LashaDevdariani

We invite you to enjoy the photos from the event in our gallery and learn more about the topic in the text and links that follow.

WMO thanks the Georgian State Pantomime Theatre for the information shared.

Although the poem takes place in the fictional settings of exotic "India" and "Arabia", events in these distant lands are but a colorful allegory of the rule of Queen Tamar of Georgia, and the size and glory of the Kingdom of Georgia in its Golden Age. It tells the friendship of two heroes, Avtandil and Tariel, and their quest to find the object of love, Nestan-Darejan, an allegorical embodiment of Queen Tamar. These idealized heroes and devoted friends are united by courtly love, generosity, sincerity, dedication, and proclaim equality between men and women, which is a recurring theme. The poem is regarded as the "coronation of thought, poetic and philosophical art of medieval Georgia", a complex work with rich and transcending genres. It has been described as "epic", "chivalric romance", "epic romance" and "epic poem of lyric poetry." Despite its formal complexity, it bears to this day "the Georgian vision of the world.”